We All Scream for Ice Cream
by Indigo Scrawl
Summary: Erin Harker: Lazy, sleep deprived, and unreasonable. Also, she does not speak Japanese. So when she ends up in Death Note? Yeah, it's her worst nightmare because, suddenly, she has to do a lot of the one thing she dislikes most. Think. Acting like a complete lunatic does not help her case even remotely, and with the Kira investigation going on? She's in for a world of trouble.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

It was hot. Unpleasantly so.

The air was smothering it was so muggy and thick. The populace felt like it was trapped, and slowly suffocating. Even the sky was hazy, and with the skyscrapers blocking out the horizon, looming like disapproving prison guards, the city had become a jail. It's inhabitants were dead eyed, their gazes blank like some stupid fish. They fanned at themselves, or splashed in crowded pools full of tepid water, but actually pretending to be alive was too draining in the stifling heat. Instead, they sighed and waited for life to continue.

Sitting in a room lit only by the pale light of a flickering computer, Erin Harker was one such person. With an already melting popsicle coating her fingers with sticky sugar, the young woman slouched in a pool of her own stench, gazing mindlessly at the screen. Her eyes were bloodshot, and highlighted by dark purple bags that indicated she had been there for a while. Of course it was impossible to even see her eyes under the rat's nest of tangled curls that fell across her face. Indeed, were it not for the occasionally twitch of a hand as the popsicle dripped all over the place, it would be hard to even tell if the female was still alive or not.

Even when the episode she was watching flicked off, Erin remained still.

She was in a state of deep pondering, which was a fairly rare occurrence in her life. In all her nineteen years, she never gave much thought to the world around her. At first it was because the girl was a child, living the mindless life of an animal with no concept of time. Once that stage ended though, Erin had discovered that thinking too hard led to a great deal of troublesome problems, and unwanted stress. As a result she left moralistic debates, as well as concerns about society, and the planet to more ambitious people.

More _foolhardy_ people.

She considered this being practical, a state a self-preservation so to speak. Truthfully, and it was a truth she was completely aware of, the young woman was really just being lazy. During the few times she had actually put her mind to use, she had made the discovery that she was probably capable of considering her environment on a more intellectual level. This was a discovery she preferred to ignore, and did so with a great deal more enthusiasm than she put into anything else; with the exception of sleep.

Which brings us to the topic of her pondering.

Sleep. It was something that had recently become a priority in her life. Not so much because it was something she did a lot of, but because it had become so _difficult_. In fact, if she thought really hard, she figured it had been at least thirty-two hours since she had actually been asleep last. The thought was exhausting in and of itself. It was even more exhausting when restless girl realized she had run out of her prescription of sleeping pills. If she was lucky she might be able to get forty minutes of broken shuteye, and crazy dreams without her medication. However, going to pick up a refill meant walking three blocks to the drugstore in 100 degree weather.

Chances were, the female would melt before she made it to the store.

Erin heaved a heavy sigh, the largest sign of life she had shown in hours, before promptly reverting back into her semi-coma.

That was the way she stayed as the clock ticked passed dinner, and then on into the night. At some point the girl tossed out the gooey mess that remained in her hand and on the edge of her seat. She even went back to watching her show. However, for all that, her mind remained slightly focused on the problem at hand. It persisted well into dawn, and eventually the sun rose again, bringing with it more sweltering temperatures.

A shard of sunlight slipped into the room, creeping warily passed the edge of the curtains, before stopping on Erin's pale, strained face. It stayed there, as if daring her to life.

The girl blinked, once, twice, and at last yawned stiffly, as if her face was no longer used to any expression but the complete dead pan she had worn for the last three days. As she stretched, her joints popped, and crackled hideously, making the young woman wince. Ungracefully, she toppled out of her chair, swaying on her feet as she waited for the blood to stop rushing from her head, and her vision to clear.

Scratching her stomach, Erin stumbled across her room. The piles of laundry nearly swallowed her up, such that it was practically a miracle when she burst out into the brightly lit landing past her door. Then, a creature nervously exploring its new, unfamiliar surroundings, The young woman headed towards the washroom. She had realized just how much she stank, and decided she needed to shower once in a blue moon if she didn't want to get labelled as toxic waste.

She left the water on cold. Despite it being early in the morning, it was already too warm for a hot shower. No matter how badly she needed to be disinfected, she would not put herself through that kind of punishment. By the time she got out, the girl she was completely numb. All the same, she felt _alive_. Her eyes may have weighed ten pounds each, and her stomach may have shrivelled into a raisin, but Erin actually felt like a living member of humanity.

Until she looked in the mirror and found out that she actually looked like a wraith. In fact, she rationalized that if she was ever going to cosplay as L, or Ryuzaki, whichever, now was the time. If she slouched a little, chopped off her hair, and dyed it black she could probably pass. Except for being female. Besides that, she had the same bony, pale appearance, and the heavy bags under her eyes gave her the matching panda effect.

Scowling, she straightened, and forced a smile on her face. It looked more like a grimace, but at least now she didn't look like one of the most morbid fictional characters to ever exist. Once she'd combed out her hair, added some make-up (she needed a good amount to hide her sleeplessness) she kind of seemed like her old self.

That was even more morbid.

* * *

The sidewalks were mostly abandoned. Most people, most _sane_ people opted for cars with air conditioner instead. Erin was envious. Plodding along the sidewalk, feeling like a turtle, or even a sloth, she thought she was probably going to pass out. She would pass out, her face implanting on the unforgiving cement, and no one would do anything about it. It was too hot. She felt like she would combust just thinking about someone coming with in two feet of her to see of she was alright.

Then again, the ambulance or the hospital were bound to have air conditioner. They may also have sleeping medication. She could play half-dead, and at the same time take advantage of cool air and drugged slumber. On the downside, that would mean confronting, and _communicating_ with people. Doctors and nurses picking and prodding about identity, and symptoms, and anything that had happened in her life _ever_.

Erin was not all that gone on talking about herself. Actually, recently she had found she was not all that gone on speaking at all. As with thinking, it required to much energy. With so many things to consider, and social pitfalls hiding just around the corner it was a great deal easier to keep her trap shut, and let people assume that she had nothing of value to say.

If she thought about it, Erin realized that was how she had made most of her choices lately. _Was it easy?_ It seemed as though the young woman had digressed into rather pathetic behaviour. Perhaps was a result of her chronic insomnia, or even the medication that left her drowsy, and dull-witted. For whatever reason, Erin lacked all incentive for even the most simple of things. Thinking? Talking? Bathing regularly? They had all been shoved aside, and labelled as unnecessary. Surely that was not healthy.

Erin could not help but wonder if maybe she should see a shrink.

But that would only result in more tiresome questions, and eventually more medications. No doubt those medications would also have side-affects that would screw up her personality. No. It seemed like too much work, with very little gain. The weary female concluded that she would be better off as is. Once she got some sleep she would perk up a little, then maybe she could work out a schedule for some form of structured living. Maybe. It was not very likely.

Erin sighed, muttered something unintelligible to see if she still knew basic English, and continued on her way. Or would have, had she not bumped into someone. She wanted to hiss like a feral cat, shove the person away, but when she looked to see the perpetrator, she found that it was a small boy. He had the expression of a person who had just found out their pet goldfish had died, the child was staring at the smear of goop which had miraculously appeared all over the bottom of her shirt.

"Oh for the love of-" Erin's speaking capabilities made an abrupt reappearance as she realized that she now had some kid's ice cream decorating her last clean outfit. Worse still, the kid looked like he was about to throw a major tantrum. "A-ah! Would you look at this," she groaned, awkwardly patting the boy on the shoulder in a half-hearted attempt to comfort him.

"My ice cream," was her only response. His voice was weak, wobbly. "My..my..."

Panicking slightly Erin glanced about for his mother, but when she found no one she heaved a signature sigh. "Look, I'll give you the money for a new one alright? Just do not start crying!" She pulled out her purse, and rooted around for some change, wondering how much an ice team cost anyway.

"Will you get it for me?" The kid asked, sounding unreasonably hopeful.

"Eh? But I..." Erin stared down at the boy, who was gazing up at her hopefully. Now that she took the time to actually look at him, she realized he was pretty weird looking. He had on ridiculous balloon pants, and some sort of sleeveless blouse with long tails in the back, as well as a ridiculously high collar decorated by tattered lace. Even stranger, outfit was completely black. Paired with dark, outgrown hair and coal coloured eyes, the kid looked even more death-like than Erin herself. His skin was more washed out than hers, to the point of looking like bone. In fact, for an instant Erin could almost pretend that the boy's face was a skull, which was ridiculous because he had to be, what? Eight?

"Girl?" Talk about a rude kid.

Erin huffed, and let herself take a step back, handing him a five as she did. "No." The kid was creepy, even if he was barely out of kindergarten. Plus, it would take way too much energy to babysit the little guy. She just knew if she agreed to one thing, then he would be asking her to do something else-like find his parents. Then she would be obligated to talk to them, and that seemed even more taxing.

"Why? Please?" the childlike voice took on an even more whiny like quality, so much so that it grated on Erin's nerves, and made the hair on her neck stand on end.

"No. It's a man eat man world out there. You gotta start taking care of yourself eventually." When in doubt, spout off some adult garbage about growing up, and children were bound to hop to it, right?

For second the small, strange boy looked like he had been smacked in the face. Indeed, Erin could almost think that he had aged several years on the spot. "So you are just going to leave a kid on his own? That doesn't bother you at all?"

Suddenly the shrimp was sounding less, and less like a youngster, and she could tell that she was starting look more and more immature. "Yeah, I am," the female replied defensively. "I'm not going to put myself out of the way for... Look. I gave you the five. Go find your parents and tell them a mean lady harassed you or something."

The boy stared at her, long and hard. "You have no desire whatsoever to be a good citizen?"

Erin groaned, entirely done with the bizarre scenario. She yawned to emphasize her complete disinterest, and walked away. There was a tiny niggling feeling telling her to go back, and be sensible, but she buried it under a pile of non-thinking. She was god at not thinking, so she did not think about that the boy was staring at her with that unnerving, black gaze, or that she had just digressed into a whole new level of unreasonable. For the rest of the walk to the drug store, she did not think about anything but how hot it was, and how tired she was.

In fact she did not think about that peculiar little boy until she saw him again on her trip back home.

It had taken her longer than she thought it would to get her medication. The pharmacist had needed her to fill out some forms, and had required her prescription, which meant a lot of thinking, as well as an extended search through Erin's bag. This had ended up in a lot of scattered clutter all the way from standard pens, to an irritating key chain that started bleeping out a mechanical tune the instant it had hit the desk. Unfortunately, it was broken, and Erin could not get it to turn off until at last she had smashed it with a weirdly coloured rock.

By the time the young, stressed woman had finished, all she wanted to do was go home and sleep. By sleep, she really meant hibernate for a century. Instead, she had convinced herself that she really needed some chocolate for comfort. Except that the line up to the check out was gigantic, because the other cashier had been shut down, and the only other one was manned by an idiot.

Truthfully, Erin would have left, except she got cornered by some old chatty salesperson who had noticed the ice cream smear on her shirt, and taken it upon herself to deliver a very long-winded speech about the latest stain remover.

As a result, Erin Harker was one hundred percent done with life. She had developed a strong loathing for chewing gum, but more importantly, the air-headed teenagers who took it upon themselves to snap loud bubbles every three seconds. She was pretty sure she was now allergic to laundry detergent, and she had a migraine that made the continental drift seem like a-

And then she slammed her fingers in the shop door.

The female could not help but wonder if it was all karma for _a certain event that she was not thinking about._ At this point, she was willing to buy the kid fifty ice cream cones if it meant the cosmic forces would give her a break. Hell, she was pretty sure that if she saw him on her way home, she would really do it. Nothing was worth the kind of bad luck she had received in the past forty-five minutes.

Then, she did see him. Except, he was sitting on a roof, with a huge, devilish grin on his face. If Erin had believed in that sort of thing, she almost would have thought that he really was some sort of demonic creature, or imp, or something, that had literally set her fate on to the path of misfortune.

That was ridiculous, though. No way would something like that happen. She nodded resolutely, having successfully convinced herself the strange boy in black was not out for her blood, and the fact that he was sitting on a roof, smiling straight at her, was perfectly normal. Very obviously choosing not to look in his direction, so that _if he was watching he_r he would know that she was pointedly not paying even the slightest bit of attention to him, Erin strode across the street.

And that was how she died.

Or should have anyway. A truck that had no time to swerve, should have crushed her while she stood frozen, hit by the sudden realization that she was about to die. That is what logically would have happened, in any other case but hers. Tired, distracted, and a bit of a buffoon, there was no way Erin could have reacted fast enough. She had nothing going for her at all, except for the fact that the 'cosmic forces' decided were trolls.

So when the female opened her eyes, she was standing right where she had been, in the middle of a cross walk. There was no truck barreling towards her, with her imminent death in the passenger seat, so to speak. Instead, people surrounded her, going to and fro, with no idea that she had almost been smeared across the pavement.

They were all speaking some other language, and Erin had no idea what was going on.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ alright, so I have no idea what I'm doing anymore. I have come to the conclusion that I am just going to ignore any sense and post whatever I feel like. Normally I would try to make sure I was even remotely serious about the story before posting it, but I think at this point maybe the responsibility of having it on a site where it can be seen will be good for me. I do not know. _

_Anyway! Yay! Another OC insert Death Note fic. They've been done. A lot. And let's be honest, an insert story for Death Note? Talk about masochistic. All that pain, and the conundrum of, _"do I have the character save L? Is that cheating? Should I change the story line? But what kind of stupid OC wouldn't save L given the chance? Besides saving super awesome detective dude, all those other people would be safe too, because Light would never get the chance to go on his God Rampage._" Yeah. Honestly, I do not even know what I'm going to do. It depends on where Erin goes._

_Mostly, I just wanted to see what a super lazy, unmotivated person would do in a world where the cast is super motivated and innovated. Also, I have not properly edited this. I'll do it tomorrow. It's late, I'm tired. I really want to post this now. Why not wait until tomorrow and post it when it's been edited you ask? I'm impatient._

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy. It's a little boring right now, because I had a whole bunch of sticky introduction to deal with, but that's how it is. I cannot think of anything else to say, and no one is reading this anyway._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

Erin breathed in deeply, trying her best not to panic. She could feel a thousand questions surging to the forefront of her mind, but she really did not want to deal with any of them. Where was she? What had happened? Why was she still alive? She had no answers at all, and no way of getting any, other than through the things she could see and feel. Unfortunately her surroundings were completely foreign. They offered her no help, no explanation for the impossible.

The young woman closed her eyes trying to block everything out. She needed to figure out what was going on. That meant finding a quiet place where she could run through everything she was sure of.

A car horn beeped, telling her that if she didn't get a move on, she was bound to _actually_ die. That was alright; since she now had a goal, she could move forward. Hesitantly, as if by taking a single step she might shatter whatever illusion she had entered, Erin made her way to the other side of the street. At first she followed the flow of the rest of the people, her head ducking when she thought someone might be looking at her. Eventually she began to search for somewhere to hide out of the corner of her eyes.

Asian. That's what she managed to figure out with the furtive glances she sent the world from under the heavy bank of hair she hid behind. Wherever she was had to be an Asian country. From what little she knew it was most likely Japan. There was a chance it was China, but she had no idea what their form of writing looked like, and the signs that she could see resembled the few letters she had seen from watching anime, and reading manga. She hoped she was right. The last thing she needed was to get yelled at for being racist.

Also, she seemed to be in a city. A huge one, filled with lots and lots of people. Erin was not exactly a small town girl, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. It may have had to do with the fact that she was very much out of her element, but the female was quivering in her shoes. Her heart was thumping away like her very own personal marching band, and her ears were ringing from the strain of trying to hear just one word of English.

_This is hell,_ she thought. _It has to be._

It was colder too. Chilly even, especially considering that she was dressed for warmer temperatures. Certainly, she knew she stood out as the only person in sight that was dressed in shorts and a tank top. She grumbled at the inconvenience, plucking agitatedly at the dried ice cream messing up her clothes. It was not like the young woman was at all ready for an impromptu trip half-way across the world. All she had was the cloths on her back, and her purse slung over her shoulder. At least she had that. With her purse she had money, and her phone, which meant she could feed herself, and get in contact with someone. Assuming this was not all some delusion brought on by heat stroke... Or death.

Not really wanting to think about that option, Erin instead chose to focus her attention back on the task at hand. All she needed was somewhere peaceful to sort out the facts, and maybe call her mother. That was all. Yet, that seemed impossible. Everywhere she went there were people. Loud, chattering, laughing strangers.

The out of place girl could feel any last vestiges of energy she had draining away. Of all the crazy things that could have happened, this had to take the cake for most exasperating. With little to no enthusiasm she pinched herself, just to be sure. The sharp sting only told her what she already knew.

On some level, this was _real_.

Erin huffed, and sent a beseeching look to the sky. She found herself hoping that what ever had occurred that sent her to this place would realize its mistake and send her back to where she was supposed to be. As far as she was aware, teleportation was not something that existed, so it seemed pretty obvious that space-time, or whatever, had botched up. Big time.

When nothing happened, the girl slouched, her arms hugging close to her bony frame for warmth. In the end, she was going to catch hypothermia, and die. It seemed like today was just meant to be her last day, no matter how much the universe tossed her around. First it had been heat-stroke, then death-by-oncoming-traffic, and now it looked like she would die, where no one knew her, because of exposure. She was doomed. The final countdown had begun. In fact, she could hear the excited murmurs of the audience at her final curtain call...

Wait, that was actually just all the people living _outside_ her head.

For whatever reason they seemed awfully stirred up. Faces tilted to the sky like they were waiting for the rapture, they were gaping like fish out of water. All those people, whispering, murmuring. Erin had no idea what they were saying, but she could feel it in her gut, the anticipation, the sense that something big, something life-changing was going on. She wanted to know, and in the end her eyes slid to follow theirs. Her cork screw curls of hair fell back, and Erin mimicked the crowd; she felt like an animal more than ever, because of this strange primal instinct. The need to _see_, like a startled beast turning to face the danger.

Then, even though she had no clue what was being said, she finally got it. When she at last saw what everyone else could see, she knew what they knew. For her there was something else as well, and it made no sense, but it was there anyway. Lit up on an LCD screen was the answer to where she was, and on some level it told her what had happened too.

A large, fancy L. She could, and would have passed it off as an ad, or some prank, but there was a familiar, distorted voice to go along with that iconic, terrifying symbol. Erin could deny what was right in front of her all she wanted, but deep down she was aware that something had already clicked into place with the finality of a nail being hammered into a coffin. She pinched herself again, called herself crazy, but nothing changed. The screen stayed flickering in front of her, a beacon to her despair, the L burning itself into her retinas.

Suddenly Erin realized dying from the cold might not be so bad. In fact, she figured it would save her a lot of trouble. It would certainly be more peaceful, because she was in Death Note, and no one in Death Note died peacefully. They died tragic, painful deaths that were tainted by madness, and betrayal. Those that lived were not much better off, because they had to suffer with the darkness, and the memories, and that awful knowledge that would leave them broken inside.

The huge television display flickered, and went static. Even though the broadcast had ended, Erin was frozen. Actually, it was more like she had completely shut down. Her brain had gone for a vacation, and her body had decided this was a perfect time to practice being a statue. A really authentic statue standing in the midst of a group of civilians who were slowly coming back to life, and heading on their ways. Some one brushed past the still girl, another bumped into her, and cursed.

She was bounced about, and shoved along until she began to to robotically walk of her own accord. Her movements were jerky, uncoördinated, as well as directionless. Occasionally she would freeze, and her knees would start to buckle under an invisible weight. It was the pressure, the pressure of knowledge, of foreboding, but most of all? It was the pressure of rejection, because there was no way Erin would just accept that she had hopped over into a whole other reality.

"I am insane. This is an elaborate delusion," she murmured to herself, teeth chattering. "I do not know what happened, but I've had a mental break. Exhaustion can do that." Her jaw twitched, and she quickly slapped a hand over her mouth to stop from screaming like a banshee. "All this is a figment of my imagination." If so, she thought it would have been nice if her mind had plonked her down somewhere where people spoke English.

Instead it had picked Death Note.

"This makes no sense. Thismakesnosensenosensenosensethismakesno_sense_." Furiously the young woman began chanting to herself, words spilling out of her uncontrollably, unstoppable, like blood pouring from a wound. She gritted her teeth, bit down on her fist, but in the end the hysterical mantra continued to seep out. Even when she realized people were giving her weird looks and skirting around in wide circle, she could not stop. Instead, she hurried away, once again hiding behind her mess of hair.

Eventually she came to a stop behind a building. Erin slumped against the wall, and slid to the ground in defeat. All was silent, but for the distant sounds of city life. The cars, the people, the whir and buzz of technology continued on, but Erin blocked it all out. She forced her mind to a state of numbness, because that she could handle. She could handle desolate silence, and barren, cold nothing. It was a relief compared to the madness outside.

The young woman burrowed into her sanctuary, tugging her purse close, and wrapping herself in her bony arms. It was not much of a comfort, and she remained cold, but she made herself as small as possible anyway. She liked to think of herself as a pebble in an avalanche. The larger rocks might shatter and break, but she was so tiny she would simply be hurled about. Hopefully, the girl thought, she would be able to withstand it just as pebble would.

It was with a burst of energy and hope that Erin abruptly remembered her purse, or more extensively, _what was in it_. Her phone would still be there! She could still call her mother, or someone for help. With desperate urgency she clawed at her bag, finger nails scrapping harshly against the fabric in the her scramble to get it open. Then, with shaking fingers she flicked on the phone.

It lit up, shining brightly in Erin's dim corner between a dumpster and the wall. Except, there were no bars. She hissed and scanned through the menu at lightning speed to see if she was on wi-fi, or if she was on her own data plan. But no, because she did not exist in the world of Death Note, obviously her phone would not exist in any databases. She wondered briefly if not existing would cause her a lot of problems. How was she supposed to explain being a completely American person in Japan with no ID whatsoever?

That did not matter though, Erin reminded herself. It was all just in her head.

Of course, there were a thousand things she could think about. Was it a delusion brought on by getting hit by the car? Or had even that been created from her going crazy. Maybe all the pressure at the store had gotten to her, and she had become paranoid about the kid-that abnormal, terrifying kid- because of some sub-conscious feeling of guilt. As a result she had imagined him out to get her with crazy supernatural powers that made her get hit by a truck. After that her mind most have just completely crumbled altogether. She was probably passed out in the middle of a side-walk somewhere.

Erin groaned, and buried her face in her hands. She could feel tears beginning to weasel their way out of her eyes, but she could not be bothered to do anything about it. So she let herself mope, and cry like a small child. She practically drowned herself in mucus, and self-pity, feeling far too miserable to even try to be a tough person. In her opinion, strength in the face of adversary could go jump of a cliff.

A very high cliff with sharp rocks, and lava at the bottom.

After awhile Erin became distracted by the chill that was setting deep into her bones. It had to be winter or something, which she supposed made sense in the timeline of Death Note. After all, Light gotten the notebook sometime during the school year, and after a period of time had to write an entrance exam for a university. Since school started in spring in Japan, or at least she thought it did, the exam probably took place sometime around then. Maybe. Which meant she had to be somewhere in between.

With an irritated huff, the young woman slammed her head back into the wall. She didn't want to think about Death Note, or anything else going on. Death Note had a lot of screwy problems that she should probably feel obligated to fix as someone with prior knowledge. She could probably try getting into a witty, psychological battle with Light, or hunt down L, and provide cryptic suggestions that would lead to all the evidence he ever needed. Except, that sounded really, damn exhausting.

There was the gentle rumble of a car pulling up, and Erin snapped to attention, eager to be away from her own internal dilemma. She wondered briefly if whoever was pulling up would get mad at her, or insist on helping her. She was not sure she liked either option, especially since she could bet that she would not be able to understand them anyway. In the end, the female prayed for the third option: that the occupants of the car would simply ignore her, or not see her at all. Then she could sit in peace, while people watching to avoid doing the thinking she probably should have been doing.

Of course, when she realized that the car pulling up was an old fashioned, but sleek, black limousine, Erin half thought to herself that it would be funny if it were L. Not that it would actually be humorous in any way, since, in her case, it would just be a cruel twist of fate. The last thing she needed was the world's top detective appearing in front of her.

So when an elderly gentleman with snowy white hair, and a matching moustache stepped out of the expensive car, Erin felt her stomach drop. It was unbelievable, too much of a coincidence to even be possible. However, the more she looked the more familiar the old man seemed. From his heavily lined face, to that dignified expression, and his impeccably neat suit, he definitely mirrored Watari perfectly.

Stupefied, Erin scrubbed at her eyes furiously, then stared at the man again. He was still there, composedly striding around the side of the car to open the back door. With nothing to block her view, he appeared even more like the Watari from the anime than ever. If that was so, then there was no doubt that the person he was opening the door for had to be...

On the verge of vomiting from nerves, the young woman watched as the world-renowned detective stepped from his car. Messy black hair, rumpled shirt, jeans, and-this almost made Erin snort in amusement-shoes with the heels pushed down under his feet; there was L in all his deceptive glory

Watari was saying something to him, something about checking in. The butler had not yet noticed Erin's disbelieving gaze. L, who wasn't listening to a word being said to him, had taken notice however.

And that was how Erin ended up having a stare-down with the one person she had wanted to see the least. Although, it was more of her being too petrified to even so much as blink than it was a stare down. All she could think was that he could see right through her, and probably knew every filthy secret she had buried under her skin. She was going to be crushed under that all-consuming, abysmal gaze.

It was probably the strain that made her crack. It started with a slight tug at the corner of her mouth, an uncontrollable smile. The next thing she knew, she was snickering, which turned into full-blown chuckles. The girl knew that she seemed like a complete nutter, but it was impossible to stop herself. It even got to the point where her laughter, which sounded like deranged cackles, was echoing through the small back lot. Her ribs ached, she could not breathe, and Erin had taken to weakly slamming her fist against the ground in an attempt to get a hold of herself.

"Ah, ah god. I've lost it." She took one glance at the two men, and promptly went back to guffawing like a drunk. It was just that the sick irony of it all was getting to a point of ludicrousness that was utterly nonsensical. The world had a foul, twisted sense of humour, and Erin had finally reached her breaking point.

"I don't think I even care anymore," she wheezed indecipherably. It was true. She was done. She had spent the last several hours panicked, and miserable. It had used every last bit of her strength, and now she was done. She was done with worrying, and constantly flipping out. None of it mattered, because Erin could no longer be bothered with the turmoil.

So she laughed until she couldn't any longer. Then, when at last she finished she was left in suffocating silenced with a deadpan L, and an extremely nonplussed Watari, who were staring at her as if she had just told them that she was Kira himself.

* * *

_**A/N**: Ah ha! Here is your next chapter! Actually, I am really super nervous, since the first chapter got such a positive response. Everyone was like "this was actually good!" now I'm scared I'm going to let you all down. I hope you'll tell me your honest opinion, good or bad so that I can grow as a writer. In the mean time I would like to share the other ending of this chapter. I hit a wall, and when that happens I resort to humour. So the following is simply a PARODY of the real ending, which you already read, starting with the arrival of L._

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Just like that, the young woman gave up completely. She blinked at the man right in front of her, then closed her eyes. It never happened, she told herself. With a deep breath she opened her eyes again, and zeroed in on the two men, who were still standing there. The older one, Watari she supposed, had finally caught on that something had happened, and now he too was watching her. With both of their gazes, she found it difficult not to squirm, but in the end Erin stayed true to her character.

She yawned, and quirked an eyebrow at them, as if to say what are you looking at?

In response, L started walking forward with that pensive, gangly gait of his. He still had not blinked, unless he had done so while she had been bracing herself. His shoes, which she noticed were falling off his feet where he had simply pushed the heels down, clomped loudly against the gritty pavement.

She breathed in, trying to match each inhale and exhale with each step he took.

It had to be the longest moment of her life.

Eventually he came within a single meter, and stopped. Erin found her breath ceasing too.

They stared at each other, the seconds ticking away. The air felt so tense that Erin could have choked. She was dying for someone to do something, or say something, anything at all would have been nice. And eventually someone did.

"No thanks," L murmured in that quiet, monotone voice of his. Then, he turned away from her, and, making sure to keep a wide range of space between the two of them, headed for the back entrance of the building. Just as he reached the door, he stopped, and turned his head. Not to address her, but rather Watari, who had been watching the entire interaction with no expression. "Please give it something to cover up with." Then he vanished inside.

For a moment Erin was too shocked that she had been referred to as an 'it'. However, when she suddenly felt the soft, warm fabric of a jacket being draped over her she snapped out of it. Her brain began to whirl as the interaction replayed through her head, and slowly it began to sink in. With cheeks blazing red in mortification, and mouth gaping, she slowly realized that both L, and Watari had just mistaken her for a prostitute.

It was... The most appalling thing that had ever happened in her entire existence, which was certainly saying something considering how the last couple house of her life had gone. Sure she was dressed in appropriately for the weather, but Erin hardly thought she looked that way. Had her behaviour been misinterpreted! But it was L!

How had he, of all people, made a mistake like that?

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_**A/N:** So yeah. That's what my pathetic mind came up with. Anyway thank you all SO much for your outstanding support. It really motivated me, and made me so very happy._


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